Lagos—The Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Dr Adekunle Ogunmola has said that Lagos State would get 2,400 additional polling units ahead of the 2015 general elections.
The Lagos REC said this yesterday, in Lagos, at a workshop on the planned distribution of Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, organised for INEC officials by the United Nation’s Development Project, UNDP, in Lagos.
Dr Ogunmola said that the distribution of permanent voter’s cards would capture the new units adding that “there will be considerations in situating the new units. The essence is to ensure proximity and that there are not more than 500 voters in a unit.”
He, also added that “we have also received the delineation report from the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC, and have given them out to our electoral officers across the councils to study. We will use the ones we consider relevant.”
He, however, explained that voters would be given forms of intention for those wishing to change their existing polling units to a new one.
According to him, there should not have been controversy over the number of polling units allocated to each state because they were allocated on equality basis for all states.
Besides, he noted that the workshop was aimed at training INEC officials on the distribution of PVCs ahead of the 2015 polls.
“Our commitment now will be to determine the credibility of future elections especially the 2015 general elections. This is the final phase of the distribution of the permanent voters cards (PVC) and the continuos Voters Registration Exercise (CVR) nationwide”, the REC said
Ogunmola however commended the UNDP for the gesture of a free training workshop and urged the staff to take it seriously.
The INEC official debunked reports that Resident Electoral Commissioners in Nigeria were ganging up against INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega saying “it is unfortunate that such story has been published but i wish to state here that there is no rift between us and the chairman”.
Also speaking, the UNDP elections expert, Prof Bolade Eyinla, noted that the goals of the UNDP sponsoring the training was part of its good governance project.
He stated that a credible voters register was germaine for a successful election.
The UNDP official however lauded INEC for its efforts at producing an unparalleled biometrics for voters in Nigeria.
Eying a said “recent elections in Nigeria like in Ekiti and Osun were not marred by controversy over the voter’s register. Since 1960, this effort by Jega to provide card that is devoid of inconsistencies is unrivaled” he said.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
